The World Poker Tour (WPT) The World Poker Tour (WPT) Seminole Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open (RRPO) Championship event is into its penultimate day, as just 16 players remain from the original 1,541 entries. Andrew Wilson is the chip leader heading into Tuesday’s action with 12.875 million chips.
Just one other player has an eight-figure chip count: three-time WPT champ Brian Altman, who is holding 10.225 million chips. One quarter of the remaining field has won a World Poker Tour title, so it should be quite the battle for the trophy. In addition to Altman, there is Chad Eveslage, who just won the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic last month, Gediminas Uselis, who won this exact event a year ago, and Denys Shafikov, who won WPT Russia in 2019.
The key moment for Wilson in not just his rise to the chip lead, but in his effort to simply stay in the tournament, came during Level 25 with blinds at 30,000/60,000. With a pot of 340,000 and a flop of Q-5-2 (don’t worry about suits here), Max Kingstone checked, Wilson bet 90,000, and Kingstone check-raised to 350,000. Wilson tanked long enough to need to use a time extension and then re-raised to 875,000.
Kingstone was not bluffing with his check-raise. He moved all-in and Wilson immediately made the call, himself all-in for 3.255 million. He had a good hand: A-Q for top pair, top kicker, but Kingstone had 5-2 for bottom two pair. The turn, though, was an Ace, which gave Wilson a better two pair. The river helped neither player and Wilson doubled up to 6.850 million. Kingstone was eliminated shortly thereafter in 22nd place.
The Day 3 bubble boy (or Day 4, depending on how you think of it) was Anthony Zinno, the WPT Season 13 Player of the Year. With 17 players remaining, Zinno bet 275,000 pre-flop, Ted McNamara went all-in, and Zinno decided to call for his tournament life, about 2.7 million chips.
Zinno: A-K, McNamara: J-J. It was a beautiful flop – Q-Q-Q – though not really for Zinno. He was unable to find anything on the turn or river and was eliminated to close out Day 3.
The plan for Tuesday is to play down to the six-handed final table before calling it a night, so it could be a relatively quick day.
World Poker Tour Seminole Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open – Day 3 Chip Counts
- Andrew Wilson – 12,875,000
- Brian Altman – 10,225,000
- Ted McNamara – 8,825,000
- Chad Eveslage – 7,350,000
- Joshua Kay – 6,100,000
- Robel Andemichael – 5,425,000
- Gediminas Uselis – 4,575,000
- Joey DiPascale – 4,250,000
- Denys Shafikov – 3,175,000
- Ryan Dougherty – 3,050,000
- Dung Nguyen – 2,750,000
- Steve Karp – 2,325,000
- Eric Bonin – 2,050,000
- Jacob Dolehanty – 1,875,000
- Phong Turbo Nguyen – 1,800,000
- Nicholas Verderamo – 1,000,000
